The Special Operations Engineer Regiment (SOER) is a specialised unit of the
Australian Army
The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...
. The regiment forms part of the
Special Operations Command. The unit was formed in 2002 as the Incident Response Regiment (IRR), they are deployed to respond to chemical, biological, radiological,
nuclear
Nuclear may refer to:
Physics
Relating to the nucleus of the atom:
*Nuclear engineering
*Nuclear physics
*Nuclear power
*Nuclear reactor
*Nuclear weapon
*Nuclear medicine
*Radiation therapy
*Nuclear warfare
Mathematics
*Nuclear space
* Nuclear ...
or explosive incidents. The regiment was transferred into the newly raised Special Operations Command in 2003. In 2010 and 2011, its role changed to supporting the army's special forces units, and it was renamed accordingly.
[Corrigan (2010), p. 37]
History
The Special Operations Engineer Regiment (SOER) can trace its history to a number of specialist
Royal Australian Engineers
The Royal Australian Engineers (RAE) is the military engineering corps of the Australian Army (although the word corps does not appear in their name or on their badge). The RAE is ranked fourth in seniority of the corps of the Australian Army, be ...
organisations. The Emergency Response Squadron was initially formed in 1999 from the existing Army Fire Service in response to the 1996 Blackhawk Helicopter disaster in the Townsville High Range training area. The Chemical, Biological and Radiological Response (CBRR) Squadron was formed in 1999 by expanding the existing Chemical Radiological Response Team.
In 1999, the
Joint Incident Response Unit (JIRU) was established as part of the
Australian Defence Force
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the military organisation responsible for the defence of the Commonwealth of Australia and its national interests. It consists of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Fo ...
's security arrangements for the 2000
Sydney Olympic Games
The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug language, Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport ...
. The JIRU incorporated the CBRR Squadron, an EOD Squadron and a Technical / High Risk Search Squadron. When the JIRU was disbanded in March 2001 the CBRR Squadron was retained as an independent squadron.
[
Following the ]11 September terrorist attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated Suicide attack, suicide List of terrorist incidents, terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, ...
the Australian Government directed Defence to re-establish a JIRU. This was achieved by establishing a new Incident Response Regimental HQ to command the CBRR Squadron and the Emergency Response Squadron (ERS), though this sub-unit was disbanded in 2006. The IRU was redesignated to form the Incident Response Regiment in May 2002. A specialist Scientific and Technical Support Organisation staffed by civilian and military scientists was also formed and attached to the IRR.
On 24 February 2012, the IRR was disbanded and re-raised as the SOER. The reason for this change was to provide a more accurate name for the regiment's current role. The primary role of the regiment is no longer to respond to crisis management, but rather to provide counter-Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear or Explosive (C-CBRNE) and Mobility and Survivability capabilities to Special Operations.
Like that of the IRR, teams of SOER personnel are integrated into the Australian Army's tactical assault groups[Corrigan (2011), p. 48] to maintain Australia's Domestic Counter Terrorism capabilities, whilst still supporting Special Operations in Afghanistan. The regiment once included an aviation emergency response capability in of support Special Operations Command.[Corrigan (2011), p. 49] However, this has since been transferred to the 16th Aviation Regiment.
Elements of the IRR deployed on combat in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of Operation Slipper
The Australian contribution to the war in Afghanistan has been known as Operation Slipper (2001–2014) and Operation Highroad (2015-2021).
Australian Defence Force (ADF) operations and the size of the forces deployed have varied and ADF invol ...
in support of the Special Operations Task Force. Later, as the SOER, elements of the unit also deployed on combat operations in Afghanistan and partner capacity building operations in Iraq.
The Special Operations Engineer Regiment is composed of A and B Squadrons and a Logistic Support Group, based at Holsworthy Barracks
Holsworthy Barracks is an Australian Army military barracks, located in the Heathcote National Park in Holsworthy approximately from the central business district, in south-western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The barracks is part of ...
, approximately south-west of Sydney, New South Wales
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, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
.[
]
See also
*Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit
The Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit (CJIRU) (french: links=no, Unité interarmées d'intervention du Canada, UIIC) of the Canadian Armed Forces was created "to provide timely and agile broad-based CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological an ...
Notes
References
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{{Aust SF
Special forces of Australia
Engineer regiments of Australia
Military units and formations established in 2002
Counterterrorist organizations